Dalton Desulgon's Demonstrative Dueling Didacticisms
by NoahPhantom
Summary: Hey, kids. Want to learn how to duel in tournaments worldwide? Gotta start with the basics. You can't build a house from the roof down! (Well, you can with magic, but that's irrelevant.) I'm Dalton Desulgon, current world Dueling champion and Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts, and this is how competitive dueling works. I wrote this for the Wizarding magazine Jiggery Potpourri.


_**NOTE: It isn't necessary to be reading my Albus Potter series to read this, and it isn't necessary to read this if you're reading the series. It's fun though. (Read it.) (You're already here.) (And review.) (Please?) (^-^)**_

_**Hello everyone. When I was writing Chapter 12 of Book 2 of my Albus Potter series, **__**Albus Potter and the Lunar Eclipse**__**, I realized that I had a really good idea for the set-up of competitive dueling. I started writing it, with Professor Desulgon explaining it to Albus and his friends, but I realized that it would be REALLY long and probably tedious for someone who was reading the story. So I decided that, although it was interesting, I would cut it out of the story. Instead, I chose to write it as a one-shot, in the form of Professor Desulgon writing an article on how to competitively duel. In-universe, it is published in the Wizarding magazine of my invention called **_**Jiggery Potpourri.**_** It is a well-known periodical for people who have a fascination in various, miscellaneous magical subjects. The magazine often gets famous individuals of many disciplines to write articles on their area of expertise. Here is Professor Desulgon's.**_

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**DALTON DESULGON'S DEMONSTRATIVE DUELING DIDACTICISMS**

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Hello, readers of _Jiggery_ _Potpourri,_ and thank you all for reading. I'm Dalton Desulgon, winner of the Singles' and Doubles' Dueling Championships in the 2016 Summer Wizarding Games. I've been requested—well, more like accosted—by the managers of this periodical to write a brief article on the intricacies of competitive dueling. I agreed to discuss some of my strategies in the sport (and can only hope that my opponents do not read this!). Really, the only rules of competitive dueling are no killing and no illegal spellwork or Dark magic, so some consider the sport simple, but there are certain clear strategies traditionally used in both singles' and doubles' duels that have been given names so as to better describe the events taking place in a duel.

Firstly, we have Enhancements. These are usually charms, because they're used to set the stage, changing the battleground in favor of the caster. Most competitive duelists will start their battles by using a number of Enhancements to try and fortify their position or deteriorate their opponents', thereby making it easier for their team to strike or defend. Sometimes, the most incredible duels start without a single attack for the first five minutes, because the duelists are trying to give themselves advantages by enhancing their abilities with anticipatory spellwork. Conversely, some duelists will try to skip the Enhancement stage to take their opponent out of their comfort zone—if you start attacking your opponent, they don't have time to start strengthening themselves with Enhancements. There are seven kinds: N, O, P, Q, R, S, and T-Enhancements, which stand for Nullifying, Offensive, Protective, Quartering, Responsive, Static, and Trickle Enhancements. Each is used in concurrence with a different strategy. Hereafter I shall abbreviate "Enhancements" as "E's," because the former is an obscenely long word to have to write over and over again. In transcripts of matches, you will often see full abbreviations, such as "Quartering Enhancements" being shortened to "Q-E's."

Nullifying E's are expressly purposed to cancel out opponent E's, or sometimes your own E's, should they become obsolete or turned against you. A good example is _Finite Futurum,_ causing great difficulties for whomever is the caster of the next spell. Offensive E's are categorized by the way they expedite offensive strategies. For example, the Connectivity Charm gives an offensive advantage by allowing wordless communication between partners, and the Channel Charm allows you to lend Kinesis to an ally's attack. (Kinesis, as I'm sure many of you know, is the natural magical energy of the body that you lend to the power of your spell. Dictionary definition is "the potency factor of the manifestation of a spell.") Protective E's are used to guard against the effects of your opponents' E's. Examples are the Corrosion Locus, making spell effects diminish with distance from their origin, or the extraordinarily complex Vitiation Charm, acting to disable specific spells from your opponent's repertoire. Quartering E's are used to gain a structural advantage to your position, like you might see in a game of chess, and E's in this category include the Distortion Charm, which diminishes vision and accuracy around a certain point. Q-E's are usually employed to hamper an opponent's magical penetration into your defenses and are sometimes Transfigurations. Responsive E's make it so that there's some sort of backlash to attacks that break through. _Corrigoro,_ the Painsplitting Charm, is a widely-used example; it was invented by Filius Flitwick and used against very unsuspecting opponents who had never seen the spell before. Static E's literally do nothing but create a distraction, to throw off your opponent or divert his attention from your plan. They can be anything from Conjuring a cupcake in the corner to purposefully misaiming or even botching a spell. Trickle E's enhance your other enhancements, like _Ubero,_ actually called the "Enhancement Charm" or "E Charm" because it adds ambient Kinesis to charms… ambient Kinesis being, in simplest terms, the "magic in the air."

There are also Dichotomies. Dichotomies are spells that fit into multiple categories. They can be combinations of multiple spells from a category, which are classified as Y-Dichotomies, or they can be from two separate categories of spells altogether, which are called Z-Dichotomies. The Shield Charm is often classified as a Dichotomy because it is used for basic defense but can also be used to forcefully displace an opponent, which could be considered an attack; this would be a Z-Dichotomy, since it could be used for both offense and defense. When these are denoted in match transcripts, all abbreviations are used: if there is a Y-Dichotomy that acts as a Protective, Quartering, and Responsive Enhancement, then it would be abbreviated Y-D-PQR-E.

Conversions are a category of spells that take control, on your behalf, of the effect of your opponent's spell, or transform a preexisting spell into another, usually used for a counterattack. They are often Transfigurations. They're pretty handy—someone sends a wall of flames your way, you turn it into daggers that fly after your foe, and then, in an instant, you kick your adversary off the offensive. I specialized in Conversions because they're more rarely seen in competitive dueling and it is therefore more difficult to strategize against them… I was also gifted in Transfiguration, which helped. _Fianto Duri_ is a good example—it takes any spell and turns it into a Barrier. There are F-Conversions, G-Conversions, and H-Conversions. F-C's turn spells into Barriers, G-C's turn spells into Aggressions, and H-C's turn spells into Enhancements. You'll see them denoted with more descriptive abbreviations:

Speaking of Barriers, I'll touch on them now. Barriers are used exactly as you would expect from the name: to ward off attacks or provide a strong defense should any attacks occur. They can be physical or magical. There are I, J, K, L, and M-Barriers. I-Barriers, Initiative Barriers, are magical barriers that actually prevent spells from manifesting through a point. J-Barriers, Junctive Barriers, are magical barriers that deflect spells, usually back towards the caster of the attack. Kinetic Barriers absorb the energy of a spell and use it to fuel the spellwork of the caster of the Barrier. Lock Barriers are used to impede an opponent's movement rather than protect your person _against_ their movements—_Incarcerous_ is often in this category, as it prevents an opponent from moving, to illustrate the sort of spells in this category. M-Barriers are Manifest Barriers and they are actual physical obstructions. The five barriers are usually used in combination with each other or with other spell categories: _Protego Maxima_ is an I-B which is usually performed in combination with _Fianto Duri_.

And finally, we have Aggressions. There are U, V, W, and X-Aggressions. Uber-Aggressions are forceful attacks, such as _Petrificus Totalus,_ the ever-popular Full Body-Bind, or _Stupefy,_ the uber-popular Stunner, which have no purpose but to go for a victory. Vital-Aggressions attempt to deprive the target of some of its stamina and are usually harder to defend; they can include such minor blows as a Stinging Hex. Wide-Aggressions are spells that slightly disrupt activity in their range. They usually have a very wide range (as the name suggests) or the effects are present for long periods of time, and they are extremely hard to block. _Circumpulso,_ the simple but effective Pulse Charm, is a personal favorite of mine. W-A's are used when you want to break your opponent's stance or groove, or both. Xeno-Aggressions, which I think were only named with the letter X because literally every other letter was taken, are spells which cause a disturbance beyond the protection of the opponent's Barriers. For instance, one might Conjure a lion behind his or her opponents if a gap is detected in their defenses.

The first five minutes of a typical match transcript (without time cataloguing or individual tags, which are far more descriptive as to order of events and who did what, but which result in a lot of empty space that wouldn't fit in the three pages I'm allotted) appears as such. This is the duel between Cassidy Gambin/Hoda Gambin and Shepard Bock/Kenzie Kay in the semifinals of the U.S. Doubles' Dueling Championships, widely considered one of the most fascinating and instructive duels ever fought.

C.A.G./H.L.G. (1) v (2) S.J.B./K.M.K.

(1)11N-E+27O-E+7P-E+16Q-E+31R-E+6S-E+8T-E&(2)29N-E+2O-E+23P-E+28Q-E+19R-E+1S-E+14T-E

(1)INT:9U-A+5V-A+18W-A+14X-A&(2)INT:8I-B+8J-B+9K-B+41L-B+3M-B

Firstly, notice the extreme number of enhancements in this match. One hundred and six Enhancements for the Gambins; one hundred and sixteen for Bock and Kay. This is a little higher than average, but it makes sense when you look at the numbers. For the Gambins: twenty-seven Offensive Enhancements and seven Protective Enhancements; for Bock and Kay, _two_ Offensive Enhancements and twenty-three Protective Enhancements. The Gambins took an offensive line to the match, and Bock and Kay created their stable ground and tried to destabilize their opponents through responsive defense. The second line dictates the first wave of Aggressions; all were from the Gambins, while Bock and Kay produced Barriers. Bock and Kay were victorious because they slowly destabilized the stance of their opponents. The Gambins could not continue their assault while danger crept in multiple forms into their position. For a full analysis of the match, consult the works of Matthacus Pierce, a famous analyst of competitive dueling (before he was arrested for the murder of eight Muggles and one Muggle-born witch). His work is instructive despite the negative connotations of his name.

Thank you very much for reading; I look forward to seeing you in the stands! For further notes, await my book, which comes out in July of 2017 (I'll be signing at Flourish and Blotts on Adelina Nelson Day); for reading on other subjects, like the often perilous job of refereeing these duels, contact your local _Potpourread_ office today. -Dalton


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